Pesky skeeters are irritating Lake County residents as the number of insects carrying the worrisome West Nile Virus climbs. This comes as the County Board begins dismantling the county’s last mosquito abatement district.
The overwhelming vote on Aug. 12 to start dissolution proceedings of the South Lake Mosquito Abatement District, which services six North Shore communities, came as County Board members cited the redundancy in the area’s mosquito control and the oversized number of taxing bodies — about 9,000 — in Illinois. Officials in the abatement district that oversees mosquito hunters are scratching over the action.
The district, formed in 1920, handles mosquito spraying, larviciding and testing in 6,700 storm drains and various sites in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Fort Sheridan, Highland Park, Highwood, Riverwoods and a small slice of unincorporated Lake County.
The district remains a throwback to the old days, much like the ancient thistle districts and thistle commissioners who were once found across Lake County in an attempt to stomp out the noxious weeds from farmlands and roadside ditches.
While it has a low tax rate, about $25 a year, the Lake County Health Department also monitors West Nile virus in seasonal mosquito populations. Officials signaled the district was next on the dissolution list after the County Board disbanded the Lake Bluff Mosquito Abatement District in 2021, leaving the South Lake entity the last of the breed.
Following an audit of district finances, the plan is for the municipalities currently under the aegis of South Lake to take on individual mosquito control as most do in Lake County, usually contracting with Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management. Or, the towns could opt to join the North Shore Mosquito Abatement District in Cook County, based in Northfield.
The district, with a five-member nonpaid board of trustees, also contracts with Clarke. The company said earlier this month it has increased mosquito spraying in Beach Park, Gurnee, North Chicago, Waukegan, Zion and other county towns because of the soaring number of insects testing positive for the West Nile virus.
According to the Health Department, at least 56 mosquito batches in the county have tested for the virus. One Lake County resident so far has been infected with West Nile, along with two others in Illinois, in DuPage and Wayne counties.
The spike in Culex mosquitoes carrying West Nile was mentioned by Riverwoods Trustee Lester Raff in an attempt to keep the district’s mission, according to one account: “The best way to cure an infection is to prevent it from happening in the first place. We might tolerate mosquitoes if they were just a nuisance, but we know they’re vectors of disease.”
Yet, a member of the district’s volunteer board believes mosquito abatement would be better accomplished by professional staff at the county or municipal level. Battling mosquitoes should be done by public health experts, she said, according to Joseph States’ story in the Aug. 15 News-Sun.
Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, said 47 county municipalities currently handle their own mosquito management. “The state of Illinois has more units of government than any other state in the country,” Hart said in the States report. “I’m really proud of the work that our board has done, little by little, chipping away and saying, ‘Hey, is there another place that would be more effective to do this work?’”
District 3 County Board member Ann Maine, R-Lincolnshire, opposed the dissolving of the district, while predicting areas would lose services and that economies of scale are present when municipalities mesh in expanded mosquito protection. She was on the losing side of the debate.
Certainly, officials in the municipalities the district currently services, especially Highland Park, the largest, would not forego summer mosquito abatement for its residents. The potential for West Nile virus has become a top summer health consideration across the region and in Illinois.
In some parts of northern Cook County, mosquito populations testing positive for West Nile are at historic numbers because of heavy rains this summer. According to a Steven Sadin story in the Aug. 11 News-Sun, of those residents who contract the virus, about 80% will not feel symptoms; another 20% will feel summer flu-like symptoms. At worst, those who do contract the virus can get encephalitis, brain swelling or spinal cord inflammation.
While its days as a taxing body may be dwindling, the South Lake district will continue to take a bite out of the mosquito population for North Shore residents for at least this year. Who steps up in ensuing summers residents may be itching to know.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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